Crowley vs. Tiffany: A stark choice for Wisconsin’s working class

The contrast between the two candidates seeking the Wisconsin governor’s mansion couldn’t be more stark. 

Democratic nominee and Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley has enacted policies locally that secured union jobs and fought for higher wages as a legislator, while Republican nominee Congressman Tom Tiffany has voted numerous times to hurt the working class. 

In recent weeks, the Milwaukee Courier has been exploring Tiffany’s anti-worker record, which started with his efforts as a state legislator to enact former Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union agenda, and has culminated in Tiffany going to Congress to vote against equal pay for women and support more child labor. The 68-year-old also attempted to weaken protections for sexual harassment victims in the workplace and prevent local governments from protecting workers.  

The track record is clear. Tiffany admitted he is not concerned with labor union support despite some 200,000 Wisconsinites employed under a union contract, calling union leaders “kingpins.”

On the other hand, Crowley has been endorsed by nearly every local labor union and was promoted as an ally for labor by leaders from nearly half a dozen labor and skilled trades unions, representing thousands of workers. 

Crowley has pledged to fully repeal Act 10, which stripped collective bargaining rights from public sector unions. He has advocated for raising the minimum wage to $20 an hour. He said he would restore prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements. And he supported expanding apprenticeship programs in the state. 

In 2023, Crowley helped negotiate the American Family Field deal that secured union jobs and kept the Milwaukee Brewers in the city until 2050. The deal was a huge source of jobs for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers or IBEW. 

Jerry Biggart, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, said Crowley negotiated with lawmakers in Madison on Wisconsin Act 12 in 2023, which “delivered critical funding to fire and EMS departments throughout Wisconsin.”

Mike Irvin, with Operating Engineers Local 139, said Crowley helped his union find land for a banner when they were running a public campaign against a contractor paying substandard wages.

Terry McGowan, President of Operating Engineers Local 139, praised Crowley for delivering funding to projects and for his partnership on apprenticeship programs.

Tiffany’s voting record in Congress on workers’ bills is a disaster

On the other hand, both in 2021 and 2023, Tiffany co-sponsored The Fair and Open Competition Act, which prohibited federal contracts from requiring project labor agreements that protect workers. PLAs are unique to the construction industry and are a type of collective bargaining agreement.

According to the Department of Labor, “Essential elements of PLAs include: provisions that bind all contractors and subcontractors to the agreement; no-strike, no-lockout clauses; and grievance/arbitration procedures. Usually, PLAs also specify the wages and fringe benefits for all workers on a project and generally require contractors to hire workers for the project through a union hiring hall that is responsible for supplying skilled labor. PLAs may also include clauses: outlining goals for hiring local community members on projects; incorporating equity plans; detailing strategic recruitment policies for workers from underserved communities; and requiring participation of small businesses.”

The AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the U.S., said “state lawmakers, backed by construction industry CEOs, want to cut the wages of those workers by eliminating prevailing wage laws and project labor agreements (PLAs) on public construction projects.”

While in Congress, Tiffany also voted for The Custom Health Option and Individual Care Expense (CHOICE) Arrangement Act, which would roll back basic health protections for workers. 

The CHOICE Act would roll back protections from former President Barack Obama’s signature health care legislation, the Affordable Care Act, and codify regulations from the era of President Donald Trump.  

“House Republicans have advanced a package of bills that could reduce health insurance costs for certain businesses and consumers, partly by rolling back some consumer protections. Rather than outright repeal, however, the subtler effort could allow more employers to bypass the landmark health insurance overhaul’s basic benefits requirements and most state standards,” an NPR article from the time states.

“At the same time, the Biden administration seeks to undo some of the previous administration’s health insurance rules, proposing to retighten regulations for short-term plans. […] The plans don’t have to cover all the benefits required of ACA plans, for example, and can bar coverage for preexisting medical conditions, can set annual or lifetime limits, and often don’t include maternity care or prescription drugs. Despite notices warning of a plan’s limitations, consumers may not realize what isn’t covered until they try to use it.”

The AFL-CIO said the legislation would subject “workers to financial risk” and is not a “stable form of coverage.” 

Tiffany has advocated for Congress to pass The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act, which would weaken regulations and halt the implementation of critical new public health and safety safeguards by requiring a vote on major rules.  

“What they want to do is to make it impossible to regulate,” Nicholas Bagley, a law professor at the University of Michigan, told the New York Times at the time. 

“‘The practical impact of this in a time of divided government like we have now is that I think no major rule would ever get done,’ said Jonathan Siegel, a law professor at George Washington, who has written about the bill at length. “If the Republican House wanted to deny the Biden administration policy wins, it could simply vote no on every regulation it proposed. Those might include rules that explain how major portions of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act are meant to work. In a REINS Act world, the Republican House could just block those rules, effectively thwarting legislation passed by a previous Congress.”

The AFL-CIO wrote, “The REINS Act is an extreme measure that would make it virtually impossible for agencies to issue any meaningful rules, threatening the health and safety of workers and the public. […] The REINS Act would cripple a regulatory process that already causes excessive delays in the issuance of crucial worker and public protections.”

An alliance of over 150 labor, scientific, research, government, faith, community, health, environmental, and public interest groups, including the UAW, AFSCME, ATU, The International Brotherhood Of Teamsters and the United Steelworkers, were strongly opposed to the measure.

“The REINS Act represents one of the most radical threats in generations to our government’s ability to protect the public from harm,” the coalition wrote in a letter. “The bill’s clear aim is to halt the implementation of critical new public health and safety safeguards, financial reforms, and worker protections – making industry even less accountable to the public. It would do nothing to improve protections for the American public, but instead would benefit only those corporations that wish to game the system and evade safety standards.”

In 2022, Tiffany voted against The Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal (FAIR) Act, which would have banned mandatory, pre-dispute arbitration agreements. 

“The FAIR Act would prohibit corporations from forcing working people and consumers into pre-dispute forced arbitration agreements and class action waivers, which are hidden in many non-negotiable employment and consumer contracts. […] Pre-dispute forced arbitration agreements and class action waivers harm working people and consumers while allowing corporations to escape accountability for wrongdoing,” according to The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. 

Nearly a decade ago about 60 million American workers lacked access to protect their employment rights due to forced arbitration, which reduced employers’ liability for employment law violations, according to the Economic Policy Institute. 

The FAIR Act would have barred the enforcement of the agreements for workers alleging sexual harassment or assault. The #MeToo law, which was signed by former President Joe Biden that same year, specifically banned the agreements for #MeToo allegations. 

Tiffany also voted against The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which would make arbitration agreements invalid and unenforceable for someone alleging sexual assault or harassment in the workplace, thus allowing the allegations to be heard in court. 

The bill overwhelmingly passed the House, including with the support of 113 House Republicans, but not Tiffany. 

Tiffany has skipped some votes over the years on legislation aimed at protecting workers. In 2022, he skipped a vote to expand eligibility for retirement benefits for disabled federal first responders and in 2021 he skipped the vote on The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, a wide-ranging labor reform bill to protect workers. 

Tiffany voted against the American Rescue Plan Act, which included pension relief for 22,000 Wisconsin workers and retirees who were facing huge benefit cuts. The bill would have raised the federal minimum wage, something Tiffany has voted against multiple times. 

He has voted against anti-discrimination protections for older workers and pregnant women and working mothers. He said he supports repealing The Davis Bacon Act, which established that local prevailing wages must be paid on public works projects.  

Crowley fights to raise the minimum wage, while Tiffany voted to keep wages low 

Crowley was also a legislator in the State Assembly from 2017 to mid-2020 prior to seeking county executive. 

While in the Assembly, Crowley co-sponsored bills that would have raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour. He supported legislation that would have incentivized or required tipped employees to be paid the state minimum wage and voted for legislation that would have prohibited an employer from relying on or asking about a prospective employee’s prior compensation. 

At a time in which local control and shared revenue are key issues in state politics, Crowley co-sponsored a bill that would have allowed local governments to enact an ordinance establishing their own minimum wage. The state legislature has been under Republican control for 15 years and they’ve made it their mission to restrict and financially weaken local governments, especially Milwaukee. 

Crowley voted against legislation that prohibited local labor and employment protections. The bill banned local governments from alllowing a minimum wage for employees under contractual service to the local governmental unit. 

The Republican-controlled legislature also repealed the “prevailing wage law,” which had been in place since 1931 and required state contractors, like a road construction company, to pay workers the average wage in a given area for similar workers.

The MacIver Institute, a free market think tank that promoted the “right-to-work” legislation, also argued that by allowing economic forces to dictate wages, rather than a federal formula, there would be substantial savings on public projects by repealing prevailing wage laws.  

According to Wisconsin Watch, “That didn’t exactly pan out. A labor-linked study analyzed 72 highway projects in Wisconsin and found that, on average, the inflation-adjusted cost-per-mile rose slightly from an average of $3.37 million before repeal of prevailing wage to $3.43 million after repeal. 

“The result reflects what the nonpartisan Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau found in 2015 about the potential impact of the law: that existing research and evidence suggested ‘relatively small effects to no statistically significant effects’ in overall costs.”

According to a 2020 study, when adjusted for inflation, construction workers’ average wages in Wisconsin fell by around 5.2% among blue collar workers, while wages fell only 1.7% in Illinois and Minnesota, which have prevailing wage laws.

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data, average weekly pay in the construction industry was $1,104 in 2017. Four years later it would rise by just $121, which didn’t keep pace with inflation, according to the same federal agency.

Crowley also co-sponsored a bill that would have increased wages for state employees working at veterans’ homes.

Crowley’s official policy position on the minimum wage is to raise it to $15 immediately and to $20 by 2030. While Tiffany has voted every step of the way to keep wages low, even at the repugnant level of $7.25. 

Tiffany was open that one of the reasons he didn’t support The American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 is because it was “filled with unrelated, job-killing policies like a $15 minimum wage mandate.” 

While a state legislator, Tiffany voted several times against raising the minimum wage. And supported a bill that eliminated the requirements that factory and commercial workers be given a day off in a seven-day workweek. 

Tiffany voted for a law that banned all Wisconsin cities from requiring employers to offer paid sick leave, while Crowley supported expanded coverage for family and medical leave laws. 

Again, the contrast is stark. 

“I know firsthand what a union job can mean: a good wage, a safe workplace, and enough financial security to support a family and put a little bit away for a rainy day,” Crowley said in a statement to the Courier. 

“But my MAGA extremist opponent Congressman Tom Tiffany thinks working Wisconsinites are all ‘special interests’ and ‘kingpins,’ while at the same time, Congressman Tiffany is giving massive tax breaks to billionaires. Money that should be going back into working Wisconsinites’ pockets – when everything from gas to groceries to utilities is more expensive – is instead going to big tech billionaires. 

“As governor, I will always fight for families like mine and ensure that working people can collectively bargain and get the fair wages and benefits they deserve.”

Tiffany’s campaign didn’t respond to a request for comment.